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| Abstract title: |
Mens violence against women in rural Bangladesh: undermined or exacerbated by microcredit programmes? |
| Author: | Sidney Ruth Schuler, Syed M. Hashemi, and Shamsul Huda Badal |
| Issue: | Volume 8, Number 2 1998 |
Using data from a recent ethnographic study in rural Bangladesh to explore relationships between mens violence against women in the home, womens economic and social dependence on men, and microcredit programmes, this paper suggests that microcredit programmes have an varied effect on mens violence against women. They can reduce womens vulnerability to mens violence by strengthening their economic roles and making their lives more public. When women challenge gender norms, however, they sometimes provoke violence in their husbands. Male violence against women is a serious, widespread, and often ignored problem worldwide. By putting resources into womens hands, credit programmes may indirectly exacerbate such violence; but they may also provide a context for intervention.
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